Newly acquired 520 STe questions

[Jobbo]

Hi there

I'm new to the forum and have some questions I hope to answer about the 520 STe I recently rescued.

The machine seems to boot to GEM, I can't tell if the drive works because maybe the disks I have are bad. Some files did show up in GEM so hopefully it was just bad discs or the heads need cleaning. Figuring out the drive will be a question for later.

My goal for this machine is to use it for viewing demos and games, both old and new. I'm no ST expert so I'm hoping to find answers to some questions, or pointed in the direction of the answers.

- Does the STe have capacitors that must be replaced? I can't see any signs of damage but would pay to get it recapped if that's wise.
- I see this site sells a modern power supply, is that recommended?
- It's a Pal machine but I'm in the US, is it fine to use with a typical UK converter?
- This STe has 512k, for games and demos is it better to have 4meg or just 1meg?
- What's the latest and best way to make floppies from a modern windows PC?

Thanks for any and all help!

[russellnash]

1 megabyte is enough for most games, 4mb can be very useful.
You will have a more pleasant gaming experience with an Ultrasatan or similar device and one of Peter Petaris sdcard images.


https://atari.8bitchip.info/fromhd3.php

https://lotharek.pl/productdetail.php?id=48

[HigashiJun]

- I see this site sells a modern power supply, is that recommended?
- It's a Pal machine but I'm in the US, is it fine to use with a typical UK converter?

If you buy the Exxos' PSU, you won't need any converter.

[rubber_jonnie]

- Does the STe have capacitors that must be replaced? I can't see any signs of damage but would pay to get it recapped if that's wise.
- I see this site sells a modern power supply, is that recommended?
- It's a Pal machine but I'm in the US, is it fine to use with a typical UK converter?
- This STe has 512k, for games and demos is it better to have 4meg or just 1meg?
- What's the latest and best way to make floppies from a modern windows PC?

In answer to your questions:

1. Not really, I've never had problems with my STE's and mainboard capacitors, though the PSU capacitors should really be replaced. If you replace the PSU that won't be an issue.
2. Modern supplies are always going to be better, but it's up to you to decide if they are within your budget.
3. A US to UK power converter should work just fine, but you will need a display that works with PAL or use a VGA adapter.
4. A lot of software has been converted to work with 4Meg, so I'd personally tend to go for that, but 1Meg should be good enough for most scenarios, and if you want to use a hard drive, 1Meg is really the minimum as drivers need to be loaded into memory and 512KB just isn't enough for that.
5. You can use FloImg to make floppies from disk images, BUT it requires a PC with a proper (Not USB) Floppy drive. IMHO you would be better off with a Gotek or similar as you can then use disk images from a USB stick without the need to make a floppy first. The other way to do it is to get disk images and use something like GreaseWeazel or Kryoflux to write the images to floppy.

[Jobbo]

Thank you all for the replies.

I think I'll get the replacement power supply, seems like a good idea. If it can definitely deal with US power outlets then that's a great bonus, just need the chord in that case.

I'd like to know more about what sort of incompatibility problems I might run into with 4meg rather than 1meg and also if it's quite common now for new demos and games to need more than 1meg?

My board looks likes someone has done something to it, there's some wires going from the sound chip and cpu to a piggy-backed little chip below the ram. I'll attach an image, can anyone explain what this mod might be?

board.jpg

[DoG]

...My board looks likes someone has done something to it, there's some wires going from the sound chip and cpu to a piggy-backed little chip below the ram...

It's factory bodge job. You got an early revision. Later revisions has the chip soldered on the motherboard. I can't remember what it was for though.

[stween]

I think I'll get the replacement power supply, seems like a good idea. If it can definitely deal with US power outlets then that's a great bonus, just need the chord in that case.

Skim the instructions first so you know the work that you need to do (instructions here, I think). The exxos PSU is great! Just be aware it's not a drop-in replacement and needs a little work to fit and wire it up.

[Jobbo]

Is there a simple drop in solution available?

[stween]

Maybe one step closer to drop-in is the STPSU? I don't have one of these so I can't speak for it.

It does still require at least chopping the old wires on the mains connector, fitting the new PSU onto the old frame, and putting the mains wires into the PSU. The installation instructions are here.

[Jobbo]

That does seem a lot simpler.

I'm just not set up to do any soldering and would rather spend a little more rather than have to figure that out.

I had already placed an order so I'll see if I can cancel the power supply.

Thanks for letting me know. I really should have read the details more carefully!